I'd like to finaly say hello...!

Mezz

And just as the title states, Hello!!!

I've been looking around this site for a little while now, and really love what I've seen! The atmosphere here seems totally friendly and everyone is always so helpful with honest but useful critiques.

Ok, I know this is getting kinda redundant lately, but... I'm a recent graduate of a Game Design program and am now in the hunt for my first job. (Yup, see? Redundant :P)

If you would like to see my full portfolio, I will be posting it in the new sticky 'See My Portfolio' thread, but I'll just post a few pics of my rendered models that I created in College here. Any comments are welcome, and thank you for letting me join this community!

Reich

Welcome!

I would love to see the face of the first toon..although i'll go check out your portfolio when i'm done with my hello here.

Love the beer on the Segway...if it is a beer...^^

Mezz

Ohhh, you'd better believe it's a beer! Corona, to be exact... unless I'll get sued? In which case... let's call it "Korona" and pretend we never had this conversation.

PeterK

I'd like to welcome you to polycount. I hope we can help you improve your skills.

We've had a recent influx of students looking for work. while I find it somewhat annoying that these students have shown up only after school let out, hoping to "network" themselves into a job, I'm still going to try and be as helpful as I can with your art. I wish you, and the others in your position, had taken the time to find, and involve yourself in these boards when you were starting out. But, I think it's better late than never.

That said, the first piece shows that you know about normal mapping and have enough understanding of your tool-set to build a character, cheers on that; it's hard to even get to that step.

The general body proportions are decent but the arms and shoulders are disproportionate. the lips suffer from too many polygons being pushed too far away from the face. Additionally, you've used the polygons to very intensely define the shape of the lips, and that's generally overkill for a low poly model. The chin needs a less sharp fall-off, or more dynamic texturing to hide the sudden pull back the throat.

The alpha hair needs work, so i suggest you study this tutorial:

http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials_3/lowpoly_hair/lowpoly_hair_01.asp

although technically acceptable, the design of the arm details is somewhat silly (leg / face details on the male character are the same). Consider visiting http://www.conceptart.org to get idea's on good mechanical/flesh interaction, or look up Tim Appleby (Spacemonkey) for a great example of technical details on a model.

Next, the skin tones you've used are generally dull and do not really make sense. consider this skin tone chart for reference:

http://photo.net/bboard-uploads/00Edcr-27156384.jpg


lastly, normal mapping is no excuse not to have colors in your diffuse. Your character's shirt and skin are missing useful color values and gradients that would make them stand out. Also consider adding some diffuse only detail, perhaps amplified by a good spec map.

EDIT: one more thing, if you want to get a good look at nice polygon flow, check out this work by Chris Watson (firestarter) , his website: http://firestarter.burning.it/



The best advise I've heard given on this board is that you should look at a modern AAA game, and see if your work is comparable, if not, you're not ready for a job in the industry, and applying around won't benefit you.

I hope I've been able to kinda steer you in a positive direction.

Edit: One more thing, I looked at the 2d artwork on your site, and your life drawings/figure drawings are very nice. I'd shy away from the anime motif, because it's what every "green" artist usually goes for(some would disagree). You look like you have talent in figure drawing, if you could apply that to your concepts you'd be in a great place.

BrodyB

I agree with Peter on the anatomy, the hands should reach down to mid-thigh and legs should comprise half the body's total height.

Xaltar

Some really great crits in here, I agree that it is rather annoying seeing so many people arrive here only after they have "completed" their education. I don't mean that as an insult in any way, just consider this (to all the newly graduated students reading), I have seen people join these boards, like myself, with absolutely 0 training and grow into compitent artists purely from the advice and crits given here. I have done no courses in 3d and I have actually been approached for interviews based on what I have learned here. Although I am far from compitent yet and failed to meet the criteria.

On the bright side, its not to late. Use the advice given here to polish your skills and take your art to the next level.

On your work tho I would recommend that you look at the issues pointed out above as well as look at a few good rendering/lighting tutos. Irrispective of weather you will need them or not, having at least a passing knowledge of these things to help you present your work in an appealing way will help your portfolio a lot. You could even ask a friend with skill in this area to do the renders for you. What you have posted here looks a little blurred and the lighting is certainly not doing the work any favors.

Good luck and keep at it.

Mezz

Woah, thanks for the help... especially from Peter, can't wait to check out some of the links you put.

As for not joining earlier... well, it's a pretty crappy excuse, but I was ignorant to boards like this one. I definately would have loved to join this forum when I first started my 3-D work, but I'm afraid I didn't learn about it until I heard about some friends from my class joining it. Again, not a very good excuse... but better late than never :P

And while I'm at it, I might as well drop the link to my site in this thread as well.
http://www.mskinrys.com

Thanks again for the help!